Events

Ken McKinlay will present a “Back to Basics” series as Education Talks in 2023/24

Target audience: beginner to intermediate. Here is a short  video of Ken explaining what will be covered in these presentations.

September: England and Wales
October: Ireland
November: Military Service
January: Scotland
February: Census Records
March: Civil Birth, Marriage, and Death Registrations
April: Church Records
May: Immigration and Emigration

See details on each monthly meeting announcement. Recordings of these presentations will be available to members in the Meeting Videos and Handouts in the Members' Area of the website after the monthly meeting.

Ken’s foray into his family tree research started over 20 years ago with three simple family stories that he wanted to confirm or refute. Although initially making use of the internet as his primary means of locating relevant documents, he now spends time in archives and libraries looking for those hard-to-find clues and documents. He has given talks and workshops for BIFHSGO, Ottawa Public Library and various branches of Ontario Ancestors. His presentations generally focus on methodologies and providing the skills needed to help solve those brick wall problems. He has a genealogy-related blog at Family Tree Knots, where he shares the methodologies that he uses in his own research.

This is a hybrid meeting:

• Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.
• Join online by registering here

. This registration covers both events.

Back to Basics: Immigration and Emigration / 9 a.m. EDT

Presenter: Ken McKinlay

Just where do we find the document potentially recording the emigration from the British Isles and the immigration in distant lands? We will be looking at the possible resources to shed light into this ongoing migration.

My Farrell Brick Wall and New Cousins: From Inchigeelagh, Cork to Holytown, Scotland and St Andrew's West, Ontario / 10 a.m. EDT

Presenters: Helen O’Farrell Sloan and Dena Palamedes         

This is a story of how patience, persistence and DNA can crumble a brick wall and reveal a new family.

Dena's second great-grandfather, John Porteous, started out in the world as John Farrell. The Scottish Old Catholic records said his father was Thomas O'Farrell, his mother was Anges Coats, and John was their "lawful" child. John married Annie Crosser and five of their eight children were baptized "O'Farrell." By 1880, the family was using the name Porteous and the remaining three children were called Porteous. Thomas O'Farrell was not to be found after 1851, and his "wife" Agnes appears to have abandoned her children and started a new life as a "spinster" marrying two more times.

Thomas O'Farrell's origins and ultimate outcome were unknown, a proverbial brick wall. Eight years after Dena's family first started DNA testing, they found a match only an hour from home in Kemptville, Ontario, and the brick wall crumbled.

This is the story of how two families reconnected and of our Covid project to find out more about two brothers: Dennis, who emigrated to St. Lawrence County, New York, and later to St. Andrew's West, Ontario, and his younger brother, Thomas, who went to Holytown, Scotland.

Helen O'Farrell Sloan is a retired teacher's assistant and has been researching and writing family history stories for many decades. She lives in Williamstown, surrounded by the history of her many ancestors. Dena Palamedes is a semi-retired internal auditor living in Ottawa, Ontario. She has been actively researching both her Scottish and Greek family histories for the last ten years.

This is a hybrid meeting:

• Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.
• Join online by registering here

. This registration covers both events.

Annual General Meeting / 9 a.m. EDT

The agenda, minutes of the 2023 meeting, 2023 financial statements and a proposed change to the bylaws are posted under the About Us tab. The annual report and bios for candidates for Board positions will be available by the end of May.|

Launch of 30th Anniversary: Looking Forward and Looking Back

Join us for information about our 30th anniversary year and cake! Some of our early members and inductees to the Hall of Fame will be joining us.

Great Moments in Genealogy / 10 a.m. EDT

Just a Wannabe Scot
Presenter: Veronica Scrimger

This is the Great Moment story of how the discovery of a tombstone in Arbroath, Scotland, ignited Veronica and Dave’s fascination with his Scrimger family history. But it actually all started when a friend declared that Yorkshireman Dave Scrimger was “just a wannabe Scot.”

Veronica Scrimger is a retired librarian and researcher.  While her husband, Dave, did all the initial genealogy of his Scrimger family, over the last seven years, Veronica used her skills to uncover the history of their lives.

Locations and Occupations: Using Census Analysis to Explore Family Dispersion
Presenter: Paul Cripwell

The census can provide that golden moment, when you find something that makes everything feel right! This talk is not only about one of those moments, but also about what happens next: the new avenues of research that become necessary to gain a better understanding of your family history.

Paul Cripwell’s journey into his family history began when he retired from Nav Canada in 2018. Needing something to keep his mind active, he quickly discovered that family history was the perfect project. It required all the analytical and investigative skills he had acquired over his 40-year career and it was also a never-ending project, so he would never get bored. His research into his Cripwell side has revealed much new information and a greater understanding of the lifestyle of his ancestors.

Mystery in the Vestry
Presenters: Jim Pot and Jack Hanna

Decades ago, a vintage desk, possibly more than 150 years old now, was donated to Knox Presbyterian Church. It sat gathering dust and cobwebs in the recesses of the church's boiler room until, one day when was it offered to the current minister, Rev. Jim Pot. While the desk was being restored for resurrection into the vestry, research into its provenance revealed that it may have belonged to an assassinated Father of Confederation. Join us as Jim shares the legend of the unfinished mystery in the Knox Church Vestry.

This is a hybrid meeting:

• Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.
• Join online by registering here

. This registration covers both events.

Middlemore Children: In Their Own Words

Presenters: Patricia Roberts-Pichette; Glenn Wright

Home children in Canada have been the focus of extensive research and writing for many years, but rarely have we heard the children themselves. Drawing on the records of Middlemore‘s Children’s Emigration Homes, Patricia Roberts-Pichette and Glenn Wright let the children speak of their hopes, fears and experiences in coming to Canada as young immigrants.

Patricia Roberts-Pichette and Glenn Wright are both longtime members of BIFHSGO. Patrica began her work on the Middlemore project in 2001, and Glenn Wright is thrilled for the opportunity to explore and bring to life the experiences of home children in their own words.

Exciting Cause: an investigation into women confined in the 1890s to the Kingston Asylum for the Insane (Rockwood) in Kingston, Ontario / 10 a.m. EDT

Presenter: Laurie Fyffe

Laurie Fyffe’s journey into the fascinating history of the Kingston Asylum for the Insane began with the discovery that her great-great grandmother, Sarah Ann Gerrard, died in that institution in 1901. How did Sarah Ann, a mother of four and a devout Anglican, come to spend the last eighteen months of her life in an asylum for the insane? Tracing Sarah’s surprising personal history led Laurie to the medical case history files of Rockwood’s female patients, where she found compelling stories and tragic outcomes for women who fell short of the ideal for female behaviour in late 19th century Victorian Canada.

An Ottawa based playwright and dramaturge, Laurie Fyffe has written and produced multiple theatrical presentations at the Ottawa Fringe Festival. In the spring of 2023, Laurie’s play Exciting Cause, created with choreographer Allison Burns, premiered at Arts Court Theatre, eventually receiving multiple Prix Rideau Award nominations. In the fall of 2022, Beowulf In Afghanistan was selected for development through the Great Canadian Theatre Company’s Tributary Project. A member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Canadian Authors Association, Laurie was Artistic Manager of Ottawa StoryTellers from 2014 to 2017, and now teaches at the Algonquin College School of Media and Design.

This is a hybrid meeting:

• Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.
• Join online by registering here

. This registration covers both events.

From the BIFHSGO Vault
Travels With My Aunt: Adventures in Europe, 1914
Originally presented in February 2014

Presenter: Barbara Tose

Barbara Tose will reprise her story of the adventures her great-grand-aunt Nellie had in Britain and Europe during the summer of 1914. Barbara weaves the stories from Nellie’s 30-page letter to her brother with the momentous events of that summer leading to the start of WW I.

An inductee into BIFHSGO’s Hall of Fame, Barbara Tose started researching her family’s history following a trip to Britain in 1982. She joined BIFHSGO in 2008 and served on the Board of Directors from 2014–2022, including four years as president. A key member of the online production team for conferences 2021–2023, she currently shares production duties at monthly meetings and is also managing editor of BIFHSGO’s quarterly journal, Anglo-Celtic Roots.

Teaghlach Gaelach: A Celebration of Irish Family History

This Irish Gaelic phrase means "Irish Family."  "Family" is at the heart of what we do as genealogists. The "Celebration" will echo BIFHSGO's 30th anniversary, and the exciting developments in Irish family history research. With so many new resources being made available online—that is cause for celebration as well. 

An exciting slate of speakers is being pulled together, so be sure to watch for details!